And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.

Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.

Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?

I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.

And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.

He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.

My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.

Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.

O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!

When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?

Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?

The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.

If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.

They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.

Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?

He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?

The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.

The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.

For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.

The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.

Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.

It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.

His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.

He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.

How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.

He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body.

Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!

That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?

His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.

Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;

Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.

Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;

Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.

In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.

When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.

All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.

The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.

Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.

Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?

Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes.

They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.

Lo, their good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in his anger.

For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?

One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.

And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure.

They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.

Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb.

How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?

But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; and the honourable man dwelt in it.

Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!

Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit of heaven.

Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.

For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God.

When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.

Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.

On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:

But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.

Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him.

Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children.

They reap every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked.

They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold.

They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.

The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.

In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.

For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.

He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards.

The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.

Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth; yet his eyes are upon their ways.

Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places.

Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.

He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them.

He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end.

All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;

For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?

Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?

Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God?

Those that remain of him shall be buried in death: and his widows shall not weep.

He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver.

Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.

He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death.

Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.

The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me.

When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:

Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;